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Tech: why the great and the good are being tricked by email hoaxes

The Bank of England’s Mark Carney, Diane Abbott and senior White House figures have all fallen prey to a low-tech cyber-prankster

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The Sunday Times, September 17 2017, 12:01am

Why is it so easy to be fooled by an email prankster? Since the beginning of May a single anonymous hoaxer — who tweets as @Sinon_Reborn and calls himself “the Email Prankster” — has made fools of several politicians and business leaders. The shadow home secretary, Diane Abbott, revealed private details of her health, believing she was talking to the Labour spin doctor Seumas Milne, and the governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, joked about the drinking habits of one of his predecessors.

Over the summer he targeted the White House, scoring several hits on Anthony Scaramucci during his brief stint as Donald Trump’s communications director. He obtained the personal email of the homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, by posing as Trump’s son-in-law,…